The Tour of Almaty, an international professional road race, will be held in Almaty for the seventh time from August 30 to August 31
The Tour of Almaty, an international professional road race, will be held in Almaty for the seventh time from August 30 to August 31
According to UCI regulations, professional teams, pro-continental teams, continental teams, as well as national teams can take part in the professional road bicycle race.
This year, the Tour of Almaty peloton will gather together 21 teams from different parts of the world. Given that the multiple stage bicycle race is part of the Asia Tour, several Asian teams will traditionally take part in it. There are two cycling groups from Malaysia - TERENGGANU INC TSG CYCLING TEAM and TEAM SAPURA CYCLING. These teams have cyclists for different stages of the race. Local racers with excellent track training are the sprint core of the team; foreigners will fight for high places in the second stage in the general classification.
Their geographical neighbors during the formation of the team list were guided by different principles. The Japanese team INTERPRO CYCLING ACADEMY gave an indication of its ambitions in the race, declaring only one Japanese rider and six legionnaires. Also, HKSI PRO CYCLING TEAM from Hong Kong focuses on the local riders which are trained by a well-known specialist Herve Dagorne from France.
The American TEAM ILLUMINATE will also arrive in Almaty. Last year, the team took second place here in the overall standings in consequence of great results of Simon Pellaud.
Many European continental teams’ riders will traditionally take part in the Tour of Almaty. For example: THÖMUS, CCC DEVELOPMENT TEAM and HRINKOW ADVARICS CYCLEANG.
In Almaty, the participants will be faced with the task to get a specific result. Among them are VOSTER ATS TEAM, MEMIL PRO CYCLING, AS SPARTA PRAHA and AMORE & VITA - PRODIR.
Also, three national teams - the national teams of Kazakhstan, Turkey and Azerbaijan - will participate in the multiple stage bicycle race. The pro continental teams GAZPROM-RUSVELO, DELKO MARSEILLE PROVENCE, and NERI SOTTOLI - SELLE ITALIA - KTM, will set themselves the highest goals in the race. Such professional riders as Alexander Vlasov, Julien El Fares and Javier Moreno have the corresponding qualifications to get specified goals.
Of course, there will be Kazakh teams. In addition to the national team, VINO-ASTANA MOTORS, APPLE TEAM, as well as the traditional multiple stage bicycle race participant ASTANA PRO TEAM will try to prove themselves in the race.
It's worth to remark that this year, only Kazakh cyclists joined the team of cycling group performing on the World Tour.
It will be recalled that, The Tour of Almaty, the international professional road race, will be held in two days. On August 30, the riders will overcome 118.6 kilometers across the territory of the Industrial Park. On August 31, the Tour of Almaty will return to the route, which has already become its visiting card - a 160-kilometer stage with a finish to Medeu.